9 Post-Credits Scenes That Were Axed From Movies
In this case, Joker didn't get the last laugh.
While post-credits scenes can have many uses, their main purpose is to give audiences a reminder that more of the thing they just watched (and hopefully liked) is coming, usually in the near future.
It's a trend that is mainly associated with comic-book movies thanks to the success of the Marvel Cinematic Universe, but even so, it's expanded greatly over the last five to ten years, with horror movies and even dramas embracing the benefits of including some additional footage for patient fans to discuss when they leave the cinema.
Because it's such a popular thing to do, a lot of movies actually plan their post-credits scenes along with the film itself, and as a result, a lot of ideas end up being scrapped - or get as far as shooting - before being axed from the movie entirely.
Maybe the scene was too long and needed shaving down, maybe it left audiences on the wrong note, or maybe it was just flat-out weird. Whatever the case, post-credits scenes have been cut from a lot of movies, and most you'll never even get to see.
9. Black Panther
Following in the footsteps of every other MCU movie before it, Black Panther included some post-credits footage - in this case, two separate scenes.
In the first of these, T'Challa stood in front of the United Nations and gave a speech about how Wakanda will start to share its technological advances with the rest of the world, and in the second, Bucky woke up in Wakanda and thanked Shuri for helping him recover. So if the movie already has two full scenes embedded within its credits, how does it fit within a list about scenes that were axed?
Well, according to Sebastian Stan, that final stinger was originally a lot longer - eight minutes longer, to be exact.
During a panel at Wizard World Portland in 2018 (via CinemaBlend), the actor spoke about the extra footage that he initially shot for the scene, and described what Bucky and Shuri got up to after the theatrical version's cut to black:
"There was something really actually funny about that scene. It's definitely better the way it is now, I think. But that scene was at least 8 more minutes long than what we saw. And it was like a more inquisitive Bucky. He was kind of really going, 'Why do they call it these?' And [Shuri] was telling him a little about it, and they kind of walk in a direction, and then he walked over and started hanging out with elders and playing with the kids, but you don't see that."
It honestly sounds like throwaway fluff so it makes sense for it to be axed, but considering that eight minutes is far too long for a post-credits scene anyway, it sounds like this was once planned to be an actual part of the movie.